Wednesday 17 July 2013 07.41 EDT
First published on Wednesday 17 July 2013 07.41 EDT

Wednesday's best bets, by Greg Wood

There were three scheduled handicaps at at Yarmouth last night with the perfect eight runners for each-way backers and all three ended up with fewer than eight horses going go post, so it was probably hoping for too much for the excellent three-year-old handicap at Sandown this evening to retain its shape. Sure enough, Keep Calm, one of the outsiders, came out of the race half an hour ago and the bookies will now pay only two places, but it remains an intriguing race of its type with several promising sorts from top yards at the head of the market.

Four of the remaining seven runners are currently trading at between 3-1 and 4-1 on Betfair, with Mount Tiger, who won a maiden at Wolverhampton in a fast time last month, the narrow favourite. This is a tough race for a handicap debut, however, and Leitrim Pass (8.15) makes more appeal. William Haggas's has not had much go his way in two starts this season, but he remains on a fair mark as a result and is still open to improvement. Any advance on his close third at Doncaster last month, when he just failed to make up enough ground in a slowly-run race, could be enough to get him home in front this evening.

Argent Knight (8.45), who has been improving steadily this season without getting his nose in front, was only fourth at Haydock last time but he struggled to find racing room in the straight and the overall form of the race looks strong.

Rain Mac (3.30) is the outsider of the field for his race at Lingfield but he has snippets of form which give him a chance, while Funding Deficit (4.10) has a decent chance in the sprint at Catterick this afternoon.

Tipping competition, day three

Our winners so far this week:

Monday

Bold Raider 4-1

Sennockian Star 5-2

Catflap 4-1

Tuesday

Tartary 7-2

Niceonemyson 4-1

Sweet Talking Guy 9-4

And our leader is:

Rivercity +13.50

who has started the week with two doubles, having picked Tartary and Niceonemysone yesterday. Woodywoody182 (+11.75) is chasing him hard, having had Tartary and Sweet Talking Guy yesterday.

This week, our prize is a copy of The History of Bath Racecourse, a smart little book by Jim Beavis on the 200 years of racing in the Somerset city. Among lots of other things, it promises new details on the Francasal ringer scandal which took place 60 years ago this week.

As ever, our champion will be the tipster who returns the best profit to notional level stakes of £1 at starting price on our nominated races, of which there will be three each day up until Friday. Non-runners count as losers.

If you have not already joined in this week, you can do so today, but you will start on -6.

In the event of a tie at the end of the week, the winner will be the tipster who, from among those tied on the highest score, posted their tips earliest on the final day.